Thursday

Well once again we had a huge family supper with all the gang here and what a fun time we had as we celebrated Bobby's 31st birthday. I'll get to more of that later but the morning started out with temp's in the 60's and a nice breeze from the east so the humidity stayed away. After Chester woke me up around 5'ish I managed to lay in bed until 6 before getting up and starting the usual routine. After my quiet time and a bowl of oatmeal with fruit I headed out on the bike for the rec and a couple hours of pickle ball. We had a good crew today with some great play and I had a wet shirt by 10 AM. After the rec I headed home to work in the garden.

I spent the rest of the morning watering, weeding, feeding and harvesting lettuces and kale from the garden as I was making a huge salad for supper and lunch. Amy and the kiddos went to the park for lunch so I helped to get ready for the crowd that was coming for supper. I picked some fresh rosemary and chopped it up with some fresh garlic and let that marinate in some olive oil along with some dried thyme and Dijon mustard; now I know that sounds like a weird combination but this makes an excellent rub or coating for any beef roast. We let the 11 pound sirloin roast set out for an hour or so to get to room temperature before applying the rub(with my hands). It's a little messy but you want this to penetrate and cover the whole surface of the roast. I put the roast in the oven uncovered at 450 for about 15-20 minutes then reduced the heat to about 350 for a couple hours or until your meat thermometer reads about 125 to 130 this is for a medium rare(good and pink all the way through). The meat will cook after taking it from the oven so take it out earlier if you want it good and red.

The dripping from the rub made wonderful gravy after separating the fat and Bobby made that as he adds all kinds of non conventional ingredients; but it was very tasty. Nancy made 5 pounds of smashed spuds, 2 pounds of Brussels sprouts and a couple pounds of fresh carrots as well as a bowl of salad with crusty bread. The roast was dewisheous as well as was everything else and the pumpkin cheesecake was the best ever. That will now become my favorite dessert. Nancy had never made one but this flavor is unsurpassed and the texture was so good. It was all eaten as we usually have some left over even with this big crowd but not tonight as even the little ones loved it.

We had a grand time with the house full up to around 9 PM when after kids baths and PJ's on they began leaving with full tummy's. Bob and Jill have a long ride home so they left early around 8:30 and the rest drifted out after American Idol. Eric leaves for Detroit at 6 in the morning so Tyler volunteered to drop him off at the airport in Tampa and then go to work early as his office is near there. Betsy and Braden dropped Amy and the kiddos off around 9 as they were having neighbor Dan service their car tomorrow. Wow what a good time we had, eating too much as usual and Bobby was thrilled with his money gifts. The kids played wonderfully together as well as bathed together. A fun time was had by all.

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